With great surprise, Apple has announced that it will adopt the RCS (Rich Communication Services) messaging standard. The functionality will be launched via a software update “by the end of next year” and will enable the introduction of a wide range of iMessage-style features to messaging between iPhone and Android users. These include read confirmation, typing indicators, and high-quality image and video transfer.
In particular, an Apple spokespersonat 9to5Mac, said that “Over the next year we will add support for RCS Universal Profile, the standard currently published by the GSM Association. We believe RCS will provide a better interoperability experience than SMS or MMS. It will work alongside iMessage, which will continue to be the preferred communication experience. Better, more secure messaging for Apple users.”
Furthermore, among the functions that will be implemented there will be the possibility of sharing your location with other people within text threads and, among other things, unlike normal SMS, RCS will also work via mobile data or Wi-Fi .
RCS is the communication standard proposed for years by operators as an evolution of SMS, which until now Apple had explicitly refused to implement: this had led to great criticism from Google and Samsung, which were among the first companies to adopt the protocol. Furthermore, the European Commission was also evaluating the issue, and there was a real possibility that Apple would be forced to adopt RCS in order to continue selling iPhones in the European Union.
In short, in recent months the Cupertino company had always received greater pressures for the adoption of a protocol that has existed for years and which should be a standard for telecommunications, like SMS. In
In any case, this It doesn’t mean Apple will abandon iMessageon the contrary: Apple’s proprietary protocol will continue to have exclusive functions that will not be compatible with RCS and the Cupertino company has reiterated that iMessage will always be more secure than RCS.
It didn’t take long to wait Google comment:
Everyone deserves to communicate with each other in ways that are modern and secure, no matter what phone they have. That’s why we have worked closely with the mobile industry to accelerate the adoption of RCS, and we’re happy to see Apple take their first step today by coming on board to embrace RCS. We welcome Apple’s participation in our ongoing work with GSMA to evolve RCS and make messaging more equitable and secure, and look forward to working with them to implement this on iOS in a way that works well for everyone.
Everyone has the right to communicate with each other in a modern and secure way, regardless of the phone they own. That’s why we’ve been working closely with the mobile industry to accelerate the adoption of RCS, and we’re happy to see Apple take the first step today to get on board the RCS train.
We welcome Apple’s participation in our work with the GSMA to evolve RCS and make messaging fairer and more secure, and we look forward to working with them to implement this system on iOS in a way that pleases everyone.
